Horn Speaker Recommendations

Well emotion is a large part of the experience and what we all seek, but I dont understand the reference to 70s sound. The goal should be truth and an honest and accurate representation of the original material. This is the only benchmark that is acceptable to me. 

With all the blah blah blah presented by jsautter, in his 200 posts, he does not mention what speakers he owns. I am sure they are wonderful, but, probably a speaker not for everyone. Let’s have it, jsautter ? Let us know what your " benchmark " is, considering, a perfect speaker, does not exist, always having trade offs.  

My main speakers are Ascendo Model Ms. In other rooms I have older Kharmas (due to cheap price when purchased), Phase Techs in the garage and some modified Radio Shack 4 speakers with Lineum tweeters. In fact, the garage would be the ideal location for some horns. 

In a sense, as an enthusiast, you are only as advanced as the best system you have ever heard.

I dont feel it necessary to preface every statement with an "in my opinion" as this is a given.

I think that you all need to listen to what johnk says as he certainly to me seems to know the most about horns and speakers from a perspective similar to those that mentored me about this particular speaker design. 

My list of audio absolutes:

1) analog is better than digital

2) all things equal higher impedance speakers are better than lower impedance speaker and sealed speaker enclosures are better than ported or transmissions lines

3) all things equal first order crossovers are best

4) never mix dynamic low frequency drivers with horns or planar
speakers


I object to a number of riaa's assertions about JBL Monitors but I will address these at a later time. I will say that listening to recordings mixed on JBL speakers will still sound better through an accurate system that is neutral than through a system that is not.  

I have not heard the PureAudioProject speakers, but I like the looks and I like the concept.  I like open baffle speakers, but, if deep bass is a must, I would caution that a relatively narrow open baffle speaker can be expected to roll off in bass response because of out of phase cancellation between the forward moving wave and the back wave.  The open baffle woofer speakers that I've heard with somewhat deep bass (not really that deep), had pretty large baffles to reduce front and back interaction.  Most recently, I heard a system with twin 18" fieldcoil woofers in a baffle that was about five feet wide.  The Shearer systems that Johnk mentioned had baffles much wider than that.